Chapter 14 Gown & Glamour
Chapter fourteen
Gown & Glamour
Arachne was in no hurry to let me see my new gown, and so I became more impatient by the minute.
As I listened to her communicate with Primrose in clicks, chirps, and the strange language of the Fair Folk, I fought the urge to tap my foot, or pull off the silk bandana tied over my eyes.
There was some sort of hard collar around my neck, which I presumed was holding part of the gown up, but I could feel nothing else except a tight bodice around my torso and the soft brush of fabric against my legs and arms. When a sharp knock finally echoed through the hovel, I nearly jumped to answer it myself, so eager was I to be rid of my blindfold and the disconcerting clicks coming from Arachne’s spider legs.
“At last, he shows his face!” the old woman cried when the door creaked open. “We began to imagine ye fluttered away rather than face Titania with a human girl in tow.”
Devil’s steady voice came from somewhere nearby. “Titania can rage all she likes. She knows she cannot touch me, nor anyone I have a bargain with. Now, let us see what you’ve cooked up for my darling May.”
Arachne just snorted and I prepared a sharp reprimand for the way he’d referred to me. Before I could offer it up, however, I heard a long, low whistle.
“Madame, you’ve outdone yourself,” he breathed. The heat of his light magyk radiated on my skin, and I felt his fingers tracing over the fabric, deftly avoiding my exposed shoulders and upper back as he circled me.
“Are the two of you quite done now?” I groaned. “I should like to see what the fuss is about.”
“Patience!” Arachne chided. “The final touch.” She slid what seemed to be a pair of bangles over my hands, but moved them all the way up so they sat on my upper arms just beneath my shoulders, then squeezed them tight.
Another pair went around my wrists, and she fiddled with them for a few minutes before declaring the ensemble complete.
“A mirror, if ye please, imp,” she said to Devil. I squirmed impatiently as the light he conjured up shone through my blindfold. Finally, a hand brushed against my ear and the cloth fell away. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but when I saw the image in the mirror, my knees almost buckled.
The gown was unlike anything I had ever seen, unlike any of the fancy ball gowns I’d glimpsed from a distance when Will and I spied on Johar’s royal parties.
Around my torso was a forest-green bodice stitched with intricate, deep purple designs that, from my vantage point, appeared to be scenes of the forest—foxes and birds and rabbits and deer dancing beneath the Arden’s trees.
The skirt was made from layers upon layers of fluttering chiffon in various shades of green, trimmed with purple satin, and I could see brown, white, and purple eyelets embroidered along the hem, to imitate the markings of the Huntress moth.
Around my neck and down my chest hung a braided bronze collar in the form of a coiled snake.
Its eyes and the tip of its tail had been inlaid with swirling green malachite stones, which almost made the undulating body look alive.
But the thing that truly made my jaw drop was the cape.
Attached to the top of the bodice with tiny bronze rings, it flowed down my back, with the upper edge fixed to the four cuffs on my upper arms and wrists, also made to look like malachite-eyed serpents.
When I lifted my arms, the heavy silk spread open behind me, patterned exactly like the wings of the Huntress moth, complete with twin tails that flowed out on the floor like a train.
“It’s…it’s breathtaking,” I murmured. Holding one hand out to keep the magyk mirror in place, Devil came to stand behind me. He leaned down so our faces were reflected beside each other in the rippling surface.
“I was going to say the same thing,” he whispered, eyes lingering on my face.
I lifted my fingers to run them over the head of the snake at my throat and asked, “A collar for your human pet?”
“Not a collar.” He shook his head with a small laugh. “A torque. Before humans carved this land up with their borders and crowns and thrones, the torque was a symbol of power and authority. Only the most respected, or feared, rulers were granted the honor to wear them.”
With a sidelong glance, I muttered, “I’ve hardly earned it, then.”
“You will,” was all he said. “Besides, I would never presume to collar you, Mayhem. A torque can be removed at will. See?” He reached around my shoulders with both hands and lifted the snake slightly, showing me how the gap between its coils, and the flexibility of the braided bronze, would allow me to pull it off myself.
Uninvited heat rushed through my body at the sensation of his fingers on my collarbones and his breath on the shell of my ear.
I cleared my throat and took a step toward the mirror to distance myself, pretending to examine the hairstyle Prim had somehow managed without removing my blindfold.
It was simple, with the front pulled back like a crown and the rest of the thick curls falling loose around my bare shoulders.
But when I glanced at Devil in the mirror, he was still watching me closely with a strange expression on his face.
Arachne had shuffled away to the back of her cave, so I turned and folded my hands.
“Why are you doing all this?” I asked, keeping my voice soft.
His eyes shifted from the torque to meet mine. “All what?”
“The cloak, this gown, introducing me to Aliena and everyone in the Hollow. Taking me to the revelry. Why not just…bring me to the person I’m supposed to heal and get it over with?”
His mouth twitched, winced, and I wondered if he was trying to lie before he said, “My master ordered it.”
“Your master ordered you to do all of this?”
“He told me to take care of you.”
“Why would he care so much about me? Is he the one I must heal? Surely, someone else in the Arden has a healing gift? Or knows how to use medicinal plants?”
“I told you that you’d have your answers tonight,” Devil said, shaking off the strange cloud and offering me his arm.
“My sweet Arachne, you are truly a miracle worker. Thank you.” The spider-woman, who had come back into the room, just let out a little grunt.
But she was clearly fighting back a smile as he took her human hand and kissed it.
“Away with ye, Puck,” she said. “The girl dinnae want to stay here when there’s enjoyment to be had at Court. Behave yerself!”
“You ask too much of me,” Devil laughed, giving her a shallow bow.
“Thank you so much,” I said quietly to Arachne. She reached out and took my hands in hers as her spider legs moved down to shake the fabric of my skirt out, making minute adjustments while I tried to ignore their proximity.
When Devil walked away toward the door, she leaned in and whispered, “Be wary the heart of the Arden, the place where all sweet waters flow, be wary of fools and of fawners, be wary what loose tongues might know.”
“What does that mean?” I hissed.
Arachne peeked over my shoulder at Devil and just said, “Yer safer with that creature than any other folk in this forest.”
“But I don’t—”
“May,” called Devil. “We must go.” I gave Arachne one more look, which she met with pursed lips and a nod, then lifted the bottom of my gown and walked to the door.
Outside, the sun was just beginning to dust the tops of the trees with gold, gilding them in preparation for evening. There was a feeling in the air I couldn’t quite describe, a pleasant anticipatory tension, which crept over me until I very nearly forgot Arachne’s dire warning.
“Please tell me we aren’t walking all the way there,” I said to Devil, lifting my gown so he could see the simple linen-and-leather shoes Arachne had given me. Before he could answer, my stomach growled loudly and I put a hand over it. “And please tell me there will be food.”
“More food and wine than you’ve ever seen in your life and no, we will not be walking or flying.” He reached down to take my hand. “But we must be standing much closer for this particular magyk to work, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
I took a full step away from him. “You will not be kissing me again. I’d rather walk.”
“I can bring you across the Arden without a kiss, you know.”
“Then why did you kiss me yesterday?!”
He nodded toward the trees, where I could just barely see Will being forced into some sort of game with Myrtle and her companions. “Are you telling me you do not want to pay him back?”
“I do not.”
“And are you also telling me you did not enjoy my kiss?”
“Certainly not!”
“Liar.” He did not elaborate, just folded his arms and smirked while I gaped at him like a fish.
The circumstances had been so upsetting that the kiss itself hadn’t mattered, but his comment had now forced me to return to the scene in my mind, which brought a searing heat to my cheeks.
I was sure he could see it, because he just shrugged and said, “If you are going to continue on your quest of self-denial, so be it. It must be terribly hard for you to differentiate a good kiss from a bad one anyway, since you have so little to compare to.” His eyes flickered over to Will again, then he moved in closer, placing his hands on my upper arms.
Unwilling to allow him the satisfaction of my discomfort, I allowed it, but muttered, “I’ll thank you to leave Will out of this.”
“How exhausted you must be from defending his honor when he would not even defend his own feelings for you,” Devil replied. The statement caught me off guard, so I merely forced a laugh and dropped my eyes to the ground. When I looked back up, the biting retort on my tongue died instantly.